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NUKEWARS
N.Korea touts nuclear prowess as China urges talks
by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) Dec 1, 2010


Japan, China envoys meet in Beijing over Korean row
Tokyo (AFP) Nov 30, 2010 - Top Japanese and Chinese envoys on North Korea's nuclear disarmament held talks on Tuesday in Beijing amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula, Japanese news reports said. Akitaka Saiki, chief of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, arrived in Beijing Tuesday for a two-day trip and met his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei at the Chinese foreign ministry, Jiji Press reported. The two diplomats were expected to discuss China's proposal for "emergency consultations" in Beijing early next month among chief envoys to the stalled six-nation talks on Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament.

Tensions have spiked on the divided peninsula after the North last week shelled a South Korean border island, killing four people and wounding 18 in the first bombardment of a civilian area in the South since the Korean war. China, Pyongyang's sole major ally, has stressed that the proposal did not constitute a formal resumption of the negotiations, but says it hopes they would lead to such a resumption soon. Japan has expressed reluctance over the talks, saying it cannot be "positive towards consultations" unless the North faces up to its responsibility for the attack and its nuclear activities.

"We don't deny the six-party dialogue itself," Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara told reporters. "But if we gather, some kind of progress should be made based on the past agreements of the six-party talks. That's our stance." Maehara added he told Saiki to deliver the Japanese position to the Chinese side, while stressing that the proposed emergency meeting should not be just "dialogue for the sake of dialogue." But Pyongyang on Tuesday moved to escalate tensions by boasting about the sophistication of its new uranium enrichment plant, a facility that has raised fears the regime wants to make more fuel for atom bombs. World powers fear that the volatile regime of Kim Jong-Il, which has twice tested atom bombs, is seeking to produce weapons-grade uranium on top of the plutonium it already has to use in a game of nuclear brinkmanship.

The White House on Monday brushed aside China's call for new six-nation talks on North Korea, saying it would amount to "PR activity" unless Pyongyang changed its behaviour. South Korea and Russia are also involved in the six-party talks but Washington has urged North Korea to stop what it describes as provocative behaviour before they can resume. Details of a meeting between Maehara, South Korea's Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Kim Sung Hwan, and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were also under discussion, Tokyo said Tuesday. "This is an initiative taken by State Secretary Clinton," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku told reporters. "I hear that its schedule is being arranged now. The Japanese government will take part in it proactively and hopes that the meeting will deepen the cooperation among Japan, South Korea and the United States in more specific and practical ways."

North Korea boasted Tuesday of running "thousands" of nuclear centrifuges, a week after launching a deadly artillery attack on South Korea, as China pressed for six-nation crisis talks.

State media in the North, which has already tested two atomic bombs made from plutonium, said "many thousands of centrifuges" are operating to enrich uranium at a new plant which it claims is for peaceful energy purposes.

The country first disclosed the new plant to US experts less than two weeks before its artillery assault, which killed two civilians and two marines on South Korea's Yeonpyeong island near the disputed Yellow Sea border.

Experts and senior US officials fear the plant could easily be configured to make weapons-grade uranium.

Analysts say the nuclear revelation and artillery attack appeared coordinated to pressure Washington and Seoul into resuming dialogue and aid, and possibly to bolster the credentials of leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-Un.

For a third day, the US and South Korean navies staged war games far south of the border involving 11 ships, air power and 7,300 personnel.

South Korea is separately strengthening artillery and troop numbers on frontline islands near the tense frontier. It will hold more drills next week close to the border, though not near Yeonpyeong, the Yonhap news agency said.

The North's state media blasted the naval drill, calling it provocative and warmongering.

"We have full deterrence to destroy our enemies at once," said cabinet newspaper Minju Chosun. "If the US and South Korean enemies dare to fire one shell in our territory and sea territory, they will have to pay for it."

Citing a statement from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Yonhap said said that more live fire exercises would take place from December 6 to 12 including near Daechong island close to the frontier.

China has refused publicly to condemn its ally for the shelling, instead suggesting emergency consultations between envoys to the stalled six-nation talks on the North's nuclear disarmament.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Tuesday it was imperative "to bring the issue back to the track of dialogue and consultation" as soon as possible.

The White House, which had already dismissed such talks as a "PR activity" unless Pyongyang moderates its activities, said that China had an "obligation" to press North Korea to end its "belligerent behavior".

"The Chinese have a duty and obligation" to impress "on the North Koreans that their belligerent behavior has to come to an end," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Japan's foreign minister has also faulted China's proposal.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, in a toughly worded speech Monday, did not mention China's suggestion in what some saw as an implicit rejection.

"We should recognise that (South Korea) is confronting the world's most belligerent group," he told a cabinet meeting Tuesday.

Almost 100 South Korean marine veterans landed on Yeonpyeong island Tuesday, vowing to defend it, ferret out spies -- and feed abandoned dogs.

"Execute Kim Jong-Il, Jong-Un," read a banner they erected after arriving by ferry, in reference to the North's leader and heir apparent.

Elsewhere, activists sent balloons with anti-Pyongyang leaflets, DVDs and one-dollar bills floating into the North across the heavily fortified frontier, urging people to rise up against the hardline regime.

With the nuclear disclosure and the bombardment, the North's leaders "demonstrated their ability to create trouble more or less with impunity", North Korea expert Andrei Lankov wrote in a commentary.

Diplomatic efforts were continuing, however.

Seoul's foreign ministry said its minister Kim Sung-Hwan would attend a Kazakhstan summit of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Wednesday and Thursday where he was expected to meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

And two top North Korean officials arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, South Korean and Japanese media said.

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NUKEWARS
US brushes aside China's call for N.Korea talks
Seoul (AFP) Nov 30, 2010
The United States stressed sanctions over diplomacy to rein in North Korea, brushing aside China's call for talks as US and South Korean warships staged a show of strength Tuesday against Pyongyang. The North's deadly artillery attack on a South Korean border island last week has highlighted deep differences between Beijing and Washington and its allies over how to restrain the North. Ch ... read more


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